Washington, DC—(ENEWSPF)—April 18, 2013. Median weekly earnings of the nation’s 102.6 million full-time wage and salary workers were $773 in the first quarter of 2013 (not seasonally adjusted), the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. This was 0.5 percent higher than a year earlier, compared with a gain of 1.7 percent in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) over the same period.
Data on usual weekly earnings are collected as part of the Current Population Survey, a nationwide sample survey of households in which respondents are asked, among other things, how much each wage and salary worker usually earns. (See the Technical Note.) Data shown in this release are not seasonally adjusted unless otherwise specified.
Highlights from the first-quarter data are:
- Seasonally adjusted median weekly earnings were $769 in the first quarter of 2013, about unchanged from the previous quarter ($772). (See table 1.)
- On a not seasonally adjusted basis, median weekly earnings were $773 in the first quarter of 2013. Women who usually worked full time had median weekly earnings of $704, or 81.2 percent of the $867 median for men. (See table 2.)
- The female-to-male earnings ratio varied by race and ethnicity. White women earned 81.4 percent as much as their male counterparts, compared with black (89.6 percent), Hispanic (89.5 percent), and Asian women (78.5 percent). (See table 2.)
- Among the major race and ethnicity groups, median weekly earnings for black men working at full-time jobs were $666, or 75.0 percent of the median for white men ($888). The difference was less among women, as black women’s median weekly earnings ($597) were 82.6 percent of those for white women ($723). Overall, median weekly earnings of Hispanics who worked full time ($575) were lower than those of blacks ($622), whites ($802), and Asians ($951). (See table 2.)
- Usual weekly earnings of full-time workers varied by age. Among men, those age 45 to 54 and 55 to 64 had the highest median weekly earnings, $1,015 and $983, respectively. Usual weekly earnings were highest for women age 35 to 64; weekly earnings were $757 for women age 35 to 44, $758 for women age 45 to 54, and $771 for women age 55 to 64. Workers age 16 to 24 had the lowest median weekly earnings, at $459. (See table 3.)
- Among the major occupational groups, persons employed full time in management, professional, and related occupations had the highest median weekly earnings–$1,344 for men and $984 for women. Men and women employed in service jobs earned the least, $576 and $447, respectively. (See table 4.)
- By educational attainment, full-time workers age 25 and over without a high school diploma had median weekly earnings of $457, compared with $651 for high school graduates (no college) and $1,189 for those holding at least a bachelor’s degree. Among college graduates with advanced degrees (professional or master’s degree and above), the highest earning 10 percent of male workers made $3,844 or more per week, compared with $2,301 or more for their female counterparts. (See table 5.)
- Usual Weekly Earnings Technical Note
- Table 1. Median usual weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers by sex, quarterly averages, seasonally adjusted
- Table 2. Median usual weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers by selected characteristics, quarterly averages, not seasonally adjusted
- Table 3. Median usual weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers by age, race, Hispanic or Latino ethnicity, and sex, first quarter 2013 averages, not seasonally adjusted
- Table 4. Median usual weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers by occupation and sex, quarterly averages, not seasonally adjusted
- Table 5. Quartiles and selected deciles of usual weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers by selected characteristics, first quarter 2013 averages, not seasonally adjusted
- Table 6. Median usual weekly earnings of part-time wage and salary workers by selected characteristics, quarterly averages, not seasonally adjusted
- Access to historical data for the tables of the Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers News Release
Source: bls.gov